Down for the count?

From my email in-box:
“Muhammad Ali used to jab and jab and destroy his opponents before the final blow. The outcome of most fights was never in question even if the opponent was standing.”

“Peak Oil, economic collapse and related factors have doomed our civilization. It stands no chance of survival much longer. Global Climate Change is not necessary for failure of our civilization, but it is here and will be the final blow and perhaps the factor that determines whether any humans will ultimately survive. Global Climate Change will change the equation from one of civilizational survival, which is not possible, to species survival. The actions taken by mankind in the short term can no longer mitigate the impacts of climate change, but they could mitigate or prevent the worst possible impacts and thus give our species a chance to survive. And establishment of a carbon market as per Al Gore and Obama are not going to help one whit.”
“The chances are greater than 50/50 in my view that nothing effective will be done about global climate change and we will begin to see the cascading and synergistic impacts of climate change with economic failure very soon.”
My anonymous correspondent has plenty of thoughtful company. Scientists are predicting massive die-off of the hairless ape, and soon, if we don’t take immediate action (e.g., here and here). Of course we will not willingly take effective action. That would force us to abandon the “ideal” of economic growth (that is, of mass murder). But, much as I hate to quibble, I’m a lot more optimistic than my anonymous correspondent.
After all, even the mainstream media have realized that low oil prices are behind us. The Saudis are going so far as to sound the alarm about a “catastrophic” energy crunch. As I’ve been saying and writing for years, peak oil is the planet’s salvation, and ours, too. It will generate the massive die-off needed to save our species. Such is the cost of overshoot for any species, even one as clever as ours.
The bill has come due. The price we pay for saving the planet — which, in this case, means our own species, along with a plethora of others — is unpalatable in the extreme. Social unrest. Resource wars. Massive human die-off.
But enough about that. Back to the television. Kulture calls.
Better days lie ahead.